Getting Started
Overview
The Postsecondary Earnings Comparison tool comprises two major sections: filters and a visualization. The filters are located at the top of the tool and are all single-value drop-down boxes. Below the filters is a visualization that displays earnings data by institution for the selected filter values.
Understanding the Visualization
To the right of each institution is a bar that displays the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles of the earnings range for that college or university. The left side of the bar represents the 25th percentile, the dot in the center represents the 50th percentile (median), and the right side of the bar represents the 75th percentile. The distance between the two sides of the bar is the interquartile range of earnings.
Hovering over a bar brings up a tooltip with the values for each quartile.
Using the Filters
The filters in this tool allow the user to narrow earnings data to a particular subset if desired:
State
Use this filter to select a state for analysis. Online institutions are listed under the last value in the list, Online.
Degree Level
Use this filter to select a degree level for analysis.
Graduation Cohort
Use this filter to select a specific cohort for analysis. Select All Cohorts to review earnings data across all cohorts available.
Earnings Period
Use this filter to select the period of time after graduation to review earnings data for: 1 year, 5 years, or 10 years.
Program of Study
Use this filter to select a high-level program of study, such as Engineering. Select All Instructional Programs to review earnings data for all programs.
Detailed Program of Study
Use this filter to select a sub-field within the selected program of study, such as Chemical Engineering. A sub-field must be selected after a program of study has been selected. If a detailed program of study is not selected, the visualization will render blank.
Additional Notes
The filters in this tool are context-dependent, and the values for each one will update based on the values selected in other filters.
In some cases, there may be no data available for a particular intersection of filter values. For example, once Masters has been selected as a value for Degree Level, only data for programs of study available at that level will be displayed.
Values in each of the filters are based on available data from the Postsecondary Employment Outcomes (PSEO) Explorer. Summary data for all categories in a filter are available for all filters except State and Degree Level - a specific value must be selected for each of these.